Is it Prawit’s show now?

It can’t be just PPT who has noticed that the tubby General Prawit Wongsuwan has suddenly taken a higher profile. Has The Dictator come down with something apart from foot-in-mouth disease? Or is he being shoved aside in a struggle within the elite and junta? Or is he taking a break?

We have no idea what’s going on, but Prawit has certainly asserted his leadership of the junta since his return from Moscow.

As part of the payback for Thaksin’s recent outspokenness, Yingluck is being tailed by a bunch of military thugs. As jester, Prawit said that the soldiers were not taking photos of her to intimidate, but because “she was pretty.” Okay, the guy’s a sexist dipstick just like Prayuth, but this is how these male bosses think and operate.

The Bangkok Post reports that soldiers “are following former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra for her own protection, not to intimidate or harass her…”. A bit like sharks following seal pups, perhaps.

What Prawit did tell us is that the extra thuggish “protection” is a decision of the junta.

He declared “[w]e’re there to ensure safety.” A bit like putting sharks in charge of seal pups.

Prawit said that if Yingluck “isn’t happy with that, we’ll ask the officers to ditch the uniform…”. That’d be even more threatening!

It was also Prawit who denied a claim by “Kyoto-based Thai academic Pavin Chachavalpongpun that soldiers were sent to harass his family in Thailand.”

We know from photos and other evidence that Prawit’s lying.

He also made declarations on the draft charter and the changes demanded by the junta, defensing all against all and any criticism.

Finally he assured everyone that The Dictator “will not chair the proposed national strategy committee as some had reported and said the issue should be left in the hands of the Senate. He was denying claims the committee represents a veiled post-poll power grab by the NCPO.”

Perhaps Prayuth is already on the way out…. Maybe he’ll need sharks too.